


A Stroke of Fate

by LadyFangs



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-06 23:44:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11046813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyFangs/pseuds/LadyFangs
Summary: An alternate take/what-if scenario following the events of "When Goodbye Comes".The seer had told Lagertha she could have no more children. But maybe it was a testament to how much his parents loved each other…that in the end, they could come together and do one more amazing thing."





	1. Chapter 1

She has been sick for weeks now, and is devastated when she learns the truth.  Lagertha doesn’t understand how it is possible. The seer _prophesized to_ her that she would bear no more children.

 She has lost three already. Two were from miscarriages, gone before she even got the chance to say hello.

But it is not until she has taken over Kattegat that Lagertha fully comes to terms with what has happed. And as the realization dawns, she breaks down. It is the worst hurt she has ever felt. She does not understand _why_ it has happened. It is yet one more strike in the ever growing blows she has been dealt in this life.

It is Bjorn who finds his mother sobbing in a dark corner in the very back of the living quarters in the great hall. The cries remind him of Paris, and he has tried not to think of Paris in 10 years.

He hasn’t spoken more than 20 words to Lagertha since he returned, too angry with her for leaving him out of her plan to depose Aslaug, and for killing the mother of his brothers in the first place. She has put him in an untenable position with his siblings.  

It is not often he has seen his mother cry, and it’s unsettling. There have only been a few times that Bjorn can remember.

The first time was when Lagertha divorced his father, like actually speaking the words “divorce”. She hadn’t even shed a tear when Ragnar confessed to fathering a child with another woman, nor did she cry when that woman showed up to their home. Bjorn meanwhile, had sobbed like a baby, watching his family be ripped apart.

The second time he saw Lagertha cry was when she miscarried her child in Paris, and she cried hard into Ragnar’s arms. He remembers how his father had comforted his mother, and he remembers the intense surge of hate he had felt toward Ragnar in that moment.

This is only the third time he has ever seen his mother cry. He goes to her.

When she sees him, she moves to stand up quickly, but the action makes her dizzy and she stumbles. She quickly wipes at her eyes.

“Lagertha, what is wrong?” Bjorn asks, and it’s the first time she has seen an actual emotion from her son in a long while. All it does is make new tears form. She is struggling to get herself together. She waves him off but he will not go.

“Mother…please. Tell me. You cannot afford to be weak right now.” Bjorn is right. Her position in Kattegat is tenuous at best. She is still trying to consolidate power and the last thing she needs is to be viewed as a weak leader. She has sacrificed and suffered too much for too long to give this up now.  She forces herself into a calm.

And he called her _mother_ …it’s been a long time since he referred to her that way.

But she really does not know what to say to her son. She shakes her head as he settles her down on the bed. He kneels next to her, rubbing her back. Finally, she speaks.

“I’m pregnant, Bjorn.” It comes out as a hoarse whisper.

“How?!”

The shock in his voice makes her laugh, actual hard laughter. She laughs so hard she begins to cry again until gradually, it all comes to a stop. When it does, she just shakes her head remorsefully.

 “Well, I’d think by now you would know _how_.”

“Mother, you’re avoiding the issue.”

She sighs and Bjorn tries a different approach.

“Or should I ask _who_?  As in, _who_ is the father?”

It comes out in a jumbled rush. She’s trying to speak as fast as she can—maybe it will make this easier, to just throw it all out there…

“Ragnar wanted me to go with him to England--”

“Father wanted all of us to go with him to England! What does _he_ have to do with this?” Bjorn rolls his eyes and begins pacing the room, mirroring exactly what Ragnar would do when he was frustrated. _He is his father’s child_ , she thinks.

But then he stops moving and turns slowly to look at her. She sees the pieces falling into place in his mind. She watches quietly as varying emotions filter across Bjorn’s face in quick succession. _Shock, disbelief, anger, sadness._ She can tell he doesn’t know what to think, because she doesn’t know either.

There is no joy in this.

“Oh, no…” He says falling to his knees, the shock of it overwhelming him.

A single tear falls down Lagertha’s face.

“Mother…tell me you didn’t…”

She looks him in the eyes, and when she speaks again, her voice is barely above a whisper.

“We did…right before your father died.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

Bjorn is reeling. He doesn’t know how to process this. The fact that Lagertha is pregnant. The fact he could have another sibling. The fact that the father is Ragnar, his mother’s ex-husband. The same man who betrayed her, the same man who continued to betray her—the man who abandoned them, abandoned his family.  But more importantly, and he knows he is wrong for thinking it but—he cannot believe they were fucking…again.  And he is angry. Mostly with his father, because Bjorn genuinely feels like Ragnar has always taken advantage of Lagertha’s feelings, twisting their relationship to use for his own purpose. Even in death, Ragnar has proven to be an asshole. Hasn’t his mother suffered enough?

He sighs and takes another drink of ale. Lagertha has cried herself to sleep and he stands watch over her. Men have always loved his mother and yet she has only ever loved Ragnar. He supposes that it was the same for his father, but by the time Ragnar realized he’d lost Lagertha, it was too late. He’d taken her for granted for too long.

 Paris was the lowest point, when she miscarried a second child and told them that she chose to fight because the seer had said she wouldn’t have any more. Bjorn can’t stop thinking about that—about whether it was the prophecy coming true, or if it came true because his mother believed it to be so. He remembers thinking that maybe, if Ragnar would have waited…that his half-brothers wouldn’t be half at all.

He still remembers the way Ragnar held on to Lagertha as she cried, refusing to let her go. And he remembers the way his father mourned that child, as if it were his own…

_Could it have been his, too?_

He shakes his head at that thought. There was no way. But the two of them in their shared grief was a piteous sight.

What will she do once the reality of the situation sinks in? Will Lagertha put herself in danger on purpose, just to test the gods? Bjorn really doesn’t know. What he does know is that his mother is scared and that she is scarred-- that she’s been heartbroken now three times, and each have been because of his father, Ragnar Lothbrok. And now she’s carrying his child.

Bjorn knows that this is what tore his parents apart-- the fact that they had tried and tried and tried, and could not conceive after his sister, Gyda, was born. When he mother finally got pregnant when he was 12, Ragnar was overjoyed. But the miscarriage was the breaking point. In fact, if he were to draw a map of his life, the line would have a single point—before miscarriage and after miscarriage. Ragnar’s decision to impregnate Aslaug soon after killed them all.  When Gyda died, their family was destroyed, because his father made a bad decision. And Bjorn knows, that Ragnar regretted that choice for the rest of his life.

 He takes another deep breath. Another drink of ale.

Or maybe it was a testament to how much his parents loved each other…that in the end, they could come together and do one more amazing thing. The poets sing the stories of Ragnar Lothbrok, and in every tale, his mother is always there. And when they sing of the great shield-maiden Lagertha, she is warrior first. Mother second, and wife, third. It was not one man who built an empire—it was the two of them, and they did it together.

Maybe it was not Ragnar being an asshole, but of the ultimate manifestation of his love for Lagertha. To give her the one thing he knew she wanted. A child. The only woman Ragnar had ever been faithful to was his mother, until the moment he wasn’t--and his father often spoke of his regrets about it, mostly when he thought no one was really listening. Bjorn has heard it from all sides.

And there is the very real possibility that this child will die. There have been two losses already. The first miscarriage was hurtful, the second one was painful, but Lagertha survived both. Bjorn is not so sure she will come out of this one if it happens. His parents were bonded together. They had something deep and meaningful, something only the gods could have done. And he knows that should she lose this child, it will kill her. Maybe not physically, but emotionally. She has loved his father too hard and she has lost too much to survive this one. The dangers are real. For them all. And what of his brothers? Ivar already wants to kill Lagertha for murdering Aslaug, and his nature is so mercurial and unpredictable Bjorn is not quite sure how he would react. The other three…he thinks, will likely be okay. They won’t be pleased, but they would be okay.

More ale.

Tomorrow, when she is calm, he will speak to his mother again.


	3. Chapter 3

When Bjorn told her Lagertha was pregnant, she couldn’t believe it. But when her husband told her who the father was…she did. And now Torvi and Ubbe’s wife Margarethe, are helping Lagertha push. And this delivery is not going well.

 They are all afraid. The baby will not come out.

Lagertha pushes hard, and finally, after hours of labor, they begin to see the head.

“Push!” Torvi yells at her. “Fight like hell, Lagertha, like you’re on the battlefield. Push!”

Lagertha screams, but she pushes, and soon, there’s the faint wail of a new life. None of them can believe it.

Torvi is crying, so is Lagertha. And Margarethe.

Bjorn is the first one through the door and he approaches cautiously, kneeling down beside his mother to meet his newest…sister. It’s a girl. There has not been a girl in so very, very long.

“Praise the gods,” he whispers, touching the baby gently.

“She looks like Gyda, mom.”

“Mom?”

“LAGERTHA!”

 They scramble now—Bjorn, Margarethe, and Torvi. But it is too late.

Lagertha is dead.

And with her death, something else has come to pass. Bjorn is now King. He has fulfilled the dream of his father and his mother—to rule over a united empire. With a new sister and all of his brothers the Lothbrok line lives on.

It speaks to something Lagertha told Ragnar long ago. That everything she has ever done was to ensure Bjorn’s place as the rightful heir. And she has fulfilled that promise to her husband, and her son.

She has also fulfilled the prophecy of the seer, who had said one day a woman would rule Kattegat.

 Bjorn holds his new sister in his arms. He hopes Lagertha and Ragnar are happy now; He hopes his parents have found each other in Valhalla.

And as Lagertha walks into the great gates, the doors open for her, and she runs into the arms of her husband, and her daughter.

 -End-

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Brunhild. 
> 
> Please read "When Goodbye Comes" first.


End file.
